My most recent solo, "Our Land," opens today in Scottsdale, AZ. Altamira Fine Art has done a great hang and I'm really looking forward to seeing it in person. The show runs through February 18, 2017. I plan to attend the opening reception Thursday February 9th from 6:30 - 9:00 pm.

Here's the digital catalogue for the exhibit: https://issuu.com/altamirfineart/docs/2017_2-1_catalog-jivanlee_v2-issuu

Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine features an article on my work titled, "A Respect for the Land," on page 114 of the December 2016 issue. The six page article tracks my process and motivations and includes photography from my studio as well as with me on location, in addition to images of recent paintings.

Here is a link to the web version: http://www.phgmag.com/resources/art/201612/a-respect-for-the-land/

"For the Wild" is my third solo show in Taos, NM, with Heinley Fine Arts. The paintings in it are a "thank you", of sorts, to the wild places and things that supported the work. It's a big show with around 40 pieces, including eight paintings from my newest series, "Lone Tree." You can view works on hand at Heinley Fine Arts' website (link).

The opening reception is 9/23 from 5 - 8pm, and the show runs through October.

I have a great group of paintings that will be on view at Altamira Fine Art - Jackson August 1 - 6, 2016, in my Artist Focus show titled "Atmosphere." Here is a link to the gallery's page for the show, and a direct link to the images of works included. The gallery is located at 172 Center Street, Jackson, WY.

Here's the show statement:

"The paintings in Atmosphere were inspired by atmosphere that is both near and far: the one that extends for hundreds of miles to the horizon, its storms reaching cacophonous heights, and the quiet, intimate one that envelops our structures in sun-infused morning air or imbues all we see with pillowy softness.

In painting this body of work I aimed to hold three things equal: conveying the mood of distinct moments of weather and light, relaying recognizable imagery, and handling paint such that the creative process is made visible and the raw material remains a central part of a painting’s reason for being.

If I’m successful, viewing the work will become a dynamic experience, both active and relaxing. Rhythmic marks of paint will coalesce into recognizable imagery and convey unique sentiments, and then disassemble again into raw material and pure slabs of color. In this flux, the works will become as much about the experience of seeing and perceiving as about the scenes depicted."

“New Mexico,” a solo exhibit from March 25th - April 24th, opens this Friday in Santa Fe. It's a show about this uniquely affecting place and my appreciation of it – expressed by way of paintings made on-location around the state. Here is a link to the Issuu digital exhibit catalogue, featuring an essay by Ken Marvel (It's also below).

The opening will be March 25th at LewAllen Galleries' Santa Fe Railyard location (Across from SITE Santa Fe): 1613 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM, 87501. For information or purchase inquiries, contact LewAllen Galleries at (505) 988-3250 or info@lewallengalleries.com or visit the gallery website at www.lewallengalleries.com.

The largest piece of mine on view at the 2016 Coors Art Exhibit found a home in UMB Bank's art collection. The painting, “Summer day in La Cienega” is a 60" x 40" piece that I painted as thunderheads developed on a blustery day in the summer of 2015. Completing it was quite the challenge and I'm thrilled to know it's found a good home.

My first major exhibit of 2015 opens Friday at William Havu Gallery! It'll be the biggest exhibition of my work to-date in Denver. I'll be exhibiting in the main gallery beside renowned painter and fellow paint-lover, James Pringle Cook. Upstairs in the mezzanine area will be David Warner.

I shipped off the exhibition's works a couple days ago and I'm very excited about the group. The pieces seem to be an elaboration of some aesthetic threads I've been exploring – especially the notion of abstraction infused into recognizable landscape – and also represent an integration of a few things with which I've been experimenting. Veils of juniper and snow, 20" x 30" (below), for example, unites ideas from some of my flatter horizon experiments with some of my moody atmosphere studies. And The northward slope and the sunset light.......

See the entire May 2015 newsletter – with more images and a couple exhibition announcements – here. You can also sign up to receive Jivan's newsletters directly in your inbox here. You'll get one every month or two and can easily unsubscribe.

I'm very excited to announce that I have been chosen as the cover artist for Southwest Art's 2015 landscape issue, and that you can find a feature article on my work in the issue! Look for the magazine nationally in bookstores and newsstands. The article, "Serenading the Land," is on pages 72 - 75 of the February 2015 issue. Below you can see the cover and the larger painting, A late fall evening, 36" x 58".

There sometimes isn't a lot to say or do. One might see the future on the horizon or want to be more active here and now, but life presents a different, more subdued plan. Such has it been of late. It's the Quiet Time, when I'm faced with the specter of painting little and waiting as the body and mind catch up from the previous year's bustle. In the past, these times were disconcerting because I didn't know whether or how I would emerge – and was less in tune with the necessity of rest and regeneration. I still feel uneasy when the paintings pause and the studio goes quiet: what will come after the Quiet Time? But I know now to let it unfold at its own pace, and for the time being get about the work of cleaning and catching up on all that I wasn't able to finish during the year. It's time to focus on replenishing the stores and building a better foundation. So in the last month there has been hardly any painting; mostly assessing and recalibrating, planning, and taking space from it all......

See the entire December 2014 newsletter – with more images, a couple exhibition announcements, and video – here. You can also sign up to receive Jivan's newsletters directly in your inbox here. You'll get one every month or two and can easily unsubscribe.

I've been asked to lead a demo at the Artisan Artists' Materials Expo on Saturday, October 19th, 2014. It'll be a good one! The session, titled "Empty mind, full canvas," will be a rare chance to see me paint a full-size outdoor landscape while answering questions and narrating my process as I go. I plan to undertake a large-format (with luck, 30" x 40" or larger) piece on-site in the rock formations at Buffalo Thunder resort. Barring an exceedingly rare late-October absolute downpour, we'll be outside.

The session will venture into the practical and the philosophical, touching on topics such as:

Where “good” painting originates,

How we discover the best of our creative process and shepherd it through the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," or maybe just a busy mind, and,

The "simpler" logistical difficulties of painting, like wind and changing light and muddied colors.

Particular attention will be paid to painting on-site and from-life, whether indoors or outdoors. Some time will also be dedicated to discussing environmentally-friendly materials and considerations.

The demo will be from 9am - 12pm and costs $75 + tax. For those of you who would like to get your hands a little bit dirty, some sketch materials (oil pastels, pencils, gessobord) will be provided for visual notes and experimentation. You can find more details and register for the event here.

A few years ago I wrote an artist statement on process that said: "when painting I'm brought back to simplicities, back to my senses, and in a way, back to life." I called painting an "act of simplification...and devotion," a "trust fall of sorts... that dissolves the excess in my psyche and leaves me clearer in mind and heart." As I recently read through this, everything rang true and yet something substantial felt lost in the neatness and romance. Everything felt a little too certain. A little too well-manicured. Painting, like love and life, is also work – hard, uncertain, and surprising work.

At its truest, I believe, the process is messy, gritty, and beautiful. As much as it is profoundly revealing, inspiring, and delightful, it is also rife with miscues, distractions, frustration, quiet defeats, and outright failures. There is the mucking about of it. The grumbling effort of it. The discomfort of regularly extending beyond one’s safety zone into the unknown; of being ground down and humbled. Or the suffering when one resists inspiration’s invitation, and in so doing, loses the thread of what is vital and pulsing. These often aren't "pretty" moments to look in on. Personal demons and ego and triggers rise and shout from the hidden nooks and crannies. Fear and worry wiggle about in it all.....

On May 10th, I'll be one of over fifty artists painting on-site during Santa Fe's season kick-off event, Passport to the Arts. It's a celebratory weekend of gallery openings, exhibitions, music, food, and more along all of Canyon Road. Saturday's Quick Draw,Artist Reception, and Live Auction is a headline event and should be a lot of fun – I was told that last year at the auction alone over 40 pieces sold!

Meyer East Gallery (225 Canyon Road) will be featuring my work in its main hall through May 22nd, and at Saturday's Quick Draw, I'll start and finish a piece in two hours (¡yikes!) – between 11 am and 1 pm. Afterward I'll be hanging out at the gallery, chatting with visitors for the afternoon until the reception at 4 pm and auction of the wet paintings at 5 pm.

My largest single-panel landscape, Candles in the sun, 72" x 48" (above), will be on view at the 16th Masterworks of New Mexico exhibition in Albuquerque from April 5th - April 26th. It's a huge piece with a huge amount of paint (nearly three liters) and I'm excited to see how it is received by visitors. The exhibition is at the Hispanic Arts Gallery at EXPO NM and features a wide range of New Mexico art and is quite the spectacle to behold. Last year my figure painting, Bella Lucia, won Best of Show. With luck this year will bring more success!

The exhibition opens April 4th from 5 - 8 pm. It runs through the 26th of April. Here are directions to the Hispanic Arts Gallery at EXPO NM.

I'm happy to report that both paintings invited to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art – in Montgomery, AL – sold during the museum's fundraising event in February. Proceeds benefit the museum's great free programming. Good news! Images of the pieces are below. They're from 2013 and are on the more abstract side of my spectrum; thick, scraped, and reapplied paint making for some loose responses to each day.